Sail the Odyssey: Ten Days Home to Ithaca on a Private Crewed Yacht
Presented at — Demo Resort
Troy had fallen and the war was over. Odysseus, king of a small rocky island called Ithaca, turned his ships for home — a voyage of perhaps two weeks. It took him ten years.
A storm off Cape Malea blew him past the edge of the known world. He lost men to a one-eyed giant in a cave and escaped by clinging to the belly of a ram. He was handed a leather bag holding every wind but the one that would carry him home, and his crew, certain it was gold, opened it within sight of Ithaca's fires. A sorceress turned his men into swine on her island and then, relenting, kept him a year. He sailed past the Sirens lashed to his own mast with wax in his sailors' ears, because he wanted to hear the song and live. He threaded the strait between a whirlpool and a six-headed cliff, and lost six men doing it. He spent seven years on Calypso's island, weeping on the shore each morning at a goddess's offer of immortality he would not take, because it was not Ithaca.
When he finally washed up on the Phaeacian coast — the island we now call Corfu — he had nothing left: no ship, no crew, no name he was willing to give. The Phaeacians fed him, listened to the whole impossible story, loaded him with gifts and sailed him home in a single night, asleep on the deck. He woke on a beach he did not recognise, in the country he had crossed the world to reach.
This voyage sails that last leg — Corfu to Ithaca — in ten unhurried days, on a yacht with a chef aboard and no giants whatsoever.
- $34,000
- Prize value
- Demo Resort
- Resort
- island
- Category
Your Own Crewed Yacht
Walk the Real Ithaca
Anchorages, Not Hotels
What the Voyage Is Worth
- Round-trip business-class airfare for two into Corfu and out of Kefalonia
- One night in a harbour-view suite in Corfu Old Town before boarding
- 9 nights aboard a private 20-metre crewed sailing catamaran, two guests only
- Full crew throughout: skipper, hostess and private chef
- All meals aboard, house wine, beer and soft drinks, and a welcome dinner ashore in Fiskardo
- Private archaeologist-led morning walk to the Bronze Age site above Stavros on Ithaca
- Robola winery tasting on the slopes of Mount Ainos, Kefalonia
- Paddleboards, sea kayaks, snorkelling gear and a tender for shore runs
- All fuel, port and mooring fees, cruising taxes and airport transfers
Ten Days, Following the Wake
Day 1Corfu — The Phaeacian Shore
Land in Corfu and settle into a harbour-view suite in the old town. This was Scheria, where the shipwrecked Odysseus was found on the beach by the princess Nausicaa. Dinner in the Venetian lanes under the fortress.
Day 2Aboard, and South
Board your catamaran at midday, meet the crew, and sail south along the green Corfiot coast. First swim stop before dusk, first dinner on deck.
Day 3Paxos and the Blue Caves
A short crossing to Paxos, then the sea caves and white cliffs of Antipaxos. Anchor in water so clear the shadow of the hull sits on the seabed ten metres down.
Day 4Parga and the Mainland Coast
Sail to the amphitheatre bay of Parga beneath its castle. Afternoon ashore, or stay aboard and let the tender run you to an empty beach.
Day 5Lefkada and the Narrow Channel
North into the Lefkada channel, past salt flats and windmill ruins. Anchor off Meganisi in the evening — goat bells on the hillside, nothing else.
Day 6Ithaca — Landfall
The crossing every day has been building toward. Enter the deep harbour of Vathy the way ships have entered it for three thousand years, and go ashore in the town that keeps his name.
Day 7Ithaca — The Ridge Above Stavros
An early private walk with a local archaeologist to the Bronze Age terraces many identify as Odysseus's hall. Afternoon at Polis Bay, where the votive tripods were found in a cave.
Day 8Fiskardo, Kefalonia
A morning sail to the one Kefalonian village the 1953 earthquake spared. Pastel Venetian houses, a harbour full of masts, and a long dinner ashore.
Day 9Mount Ainos and the Robola Slopes
Inland to the high vineyards for a tasting of Robola, the sharp white grown on bare limestone. Back aboard for a last night at anchor.
Day 10Home Winds
A slow final breakfast on deck, then the short transfer to Kefalonia airport and your flight home — considerably faster than his.
The Ionian, Ten Days Deep
Ithaca, Ionian Islands, Greece
The homeward leg, as a mariner might have charted it: north from the Phaeacian shore, down through the islands, to the harbour he spent twenty years trying to reach.
Three ways to win
It Took Him Ten Years. It Takes You One Entry.
Enter free for the chance to sail Corfu to Ithaca on a private crewed yacht — a $34,000 voyage for two.
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